Kinnick Stadium recycling needs a boost

While watching my Iowa Hawkeyes finish off an incredible football season, I began to think about how much trash gets generated at a sporting event. Although I realize that the 70,000 people who attend the games were probably going to generate "some" amount of trash that day, even if they didn't go to a game, there is still a lot that a university can do to minimize the amount of trash they create, and what happens to it after the game is over.

While in high school in Iowa City, all fall sports athletes were required to arrive at 7am on Sunday morning to clean the stadium after a home game. The university donated the money we raised to the athletic programs of each high school. If enough people showed up (usually 200-500 people), it could be fully cleaned in under 2 hours. It's a win-win for all parties!

I started thinking back to those days, and how the process worked, so I decided to check to see if things have changed much since I last participated.



When we arrived, we were happy to see that they were handing out special bags just for bottles. However, instead of using paper cups and dispensing soda from the fountain machine, they seemed to have gone with plastic bottles as the primary source of soda. The number of bottles was unbelievable, so it's no wonder why bottle recycling was being promoted. There were plastic bottle recycling setup around the stadium, so that was a positive. However, right next to that was a trash can, where many of the bottles ended up, unfortunately.

During the cleanup process, the trash is swept into the aisle, and then forced into a trash bag. Even with people walking around looking for bottles, there were many of them that still ended up in the trash. Everyone is trying to get the job done, and aren't spending a lot of time looking to see what can be pulled out for recycling.



The other surprise was the amount of aluminum cans that were present. First of all, these items are not actually sold in the stadium, so they must be "smuggled" in by the fans. What is amazing is that Iowa has a 5 cent deposit on aluminum cans, so the fact that no one had picked up these cans yet was hard to believe. I bet there was $20 worth of aluminum cans laying around. If you want to make some quick money, hang out after the next Iowa game next fall.

Here is a picture of the main items that were left behind after the game.



In summary, there were:

• Plastic Bottles (soda, sports drinks and water)
  
• Aluminum Cans (soda and beer)
  
• Plastic bags (peanuts, hot dog wrappers)
  
• Plastic containers (nachos, coffee lids, special drink cups)
  
• Newspaper/Paper products (game programs, drinks/coffee, popcorn, fries, plates)
  
• Food waste/organics (pretzels, pizza crusts, peanut shells)
  
• Cardboard (coffee holders, carrying trays)
  

So what do I plan to recommend, and help implement at Kinnick Stadium next year? A three pronged attack is probably the best option.

1. Reduce the amount of trash - push for items with less packaging, or packaging with a higher recycled content (or maybe more biodegradable material).
   
2. Reuse containers more than once - make it an incentive to reuse their commemorative cups each game, or provide reusable carrying trays (not disposable).
   
3. Recycle as much as possible - which items can be recycled, that aren't being done today, and setup a simple process for the fans and cleanup crew.
   

I'll keep you posted on my efforts. Next time you're at a sporting event, look around and see what improvements can be made to make recycling easier, and let the team know about it!

No air conditioning in Florida?

We did it! We managed to go an entire year in Florida without any air conditioning! It was one of the tougher things we have ever taken on, and I'm not sure if I would do it again...

The good news is that we were able to save over $1000 in electricity bills, when comparing our bills to the average in prior years (Feb-Oct which are the primary months for A/C usage):

 How did we do it?

1) Determination - We both agreed and committed to doing it before the summer started, and we had to rely on each other when it got really hot outside, and we were sweating in the middle of the night. Florida had an especially hot and long summer in 2009, which made it even tougher. It takes a special woman to even consider this idea, let alone agree to try it.

2) Use natural cooling - Everyday we opened up the garage door and all windows, and allowed the wind to provide most of the cooling by allowing the wind to blow through the house without obstruction. We also kept the shades down, to keep the inside from getting too warm.

3) Cold showers - Whenever it got too warm, we'd jump into the showers for a quick cool down. If you don't heat up the water, it's really cold, and the shock to the system was enough to get us by for a few more hours.

This summer, we don't plan to go completely without air conditioning, but we know we can greatly minimize its use by using the techniques above. We'll be in Iowa, so the heat won't be around as long as it is in Florida.

Could we do the same thing in Iowa in the winter and go without heat? Not a chance. I think we would need a fireplace to even consider that option.

This was really rewarding, and I felt like we really made a difference. Most of our friends thought we were crazy or thought it was physically impossible, so that made it even better when it was all over.

Depressing trip to the landfill

As part of my company's ISO-14001 team, we took a tour of the local landfill. If you've never been to a landfill, you need to go. It will inspire you to do way more recycling than you do now! Most of them will give you free tours, since they realize the importance of public education. In fact, take the whole family, and you'll see how quickly you can change their behavior!



On the downside, it was pretty depressing to see all the trucks constantly dump loads of waste all day long. One after another. The worst part is that many of the items being dumped could have been recycled (cardboard, wood, fabric, plastic bottles and jugs, paper, etc). But once it leaves the truck, it's against the law to grab the item (for safety reasons), so we saw piles of items that you wanted to go grab and place in the recycling bins, but we couldn't.



If I ran the landfill, I would require every truck to empty its contents, and sort out the recyclable items from the waste, before it ever goes up to the hill. Why do we expect the citizens to know all the rules? Why would they blindly allow people to dump items without any inspection or checks? With the constant updates in what can and cannot be recycled (which also seems to be unclear whomever I ask), educating the public will always be way too costly and too much "after the fact" to make any immediate impact. Spend that money and effort at the last line of defense, and use that information to flow back to the truck drivers and citizens with hard facts.

I realize there would be a lot of extra labor involved, but what about the cost of land for burying stuff we don't need to throw away, and having to buy more land a lot sooner, as a result of this lack of "inspection". If you consider any recyclable item that is dumped as an error or "escape", then common thought is that you go to the prior step and setup an inspection, until you eventually trace back to the source of the "error". Yes, public education is the ultimate scenario we should strive for, where no one throws away anything unless it cannot be recycled. In the meantime, you should manually sort out what doesn't belong until that time comes.

That brings me to the really depressing part. Once an item is dumped, it gets covered and all liquid is eventually extracted from underneath the trash. The hill is covered in a layer of material that prevents any moisture from entering. Basically, it's sealed up tight, and nothing gets in or out.



This is a problem because nothing will degrade or compost in those conditions. Biodegradable materials require water, heat and oxygen in order to break down, which they will not get inside the landfill (at least not enough before its covered forever).

BOTTOM LINE: Don't bother buying biodegradable materials unless you are going to compost them yourselves, or take them somewhere that will compost them for you (which is rare to find for most people)!

Here is some more information on biodegradable materials

P.S. This isn't a rant against my local landfill. They do use the methane to generate electricity, and the people there are passionate about recycling and reducing waste, and were just as upset about the situation as we were. I'm just ranting at the whole broken process...

Paradise covered in trash?

We finally got around to taking a honeymoon. We picked St. Croix in the Virgin Islands as our destination, because my wife was impressed with her visit to St. John's and St. Thomas a few years ago.

First of all, if you want to visit Hawaii, but can't afford the flight, then the Virgin Islands is the next best thing! The views were spectacular, as you can see from some photos below...









That being said, one of the disappointments about St. Croix was the amount of trash we saw on the beaches. I understand that the trash that washes up on a beach does not usually come from the local people. However, I think it is important for an island that relies on tourism to have a permanent program in place to keep the beaches clean. In addition, we did not see a very strong recycling program, so I am certain that the locals and tourists are contributing a significant amount to the problem.

Each beach access we stopped at contained a wide variety of garbage that had washed ashore. Plastics, milk jugs and cartons, fishing lines and lures, glass bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard, etc. You name it, we saw it.

Since this was our vacation, I wanted to take my "environmental" hat off for the week (yeah right!), but the longer we were there, the more obvious the trash became, and the more we pressured each other into doing something about it.

There was a potential hurricane (Erika) that almost hit while we were there. It ended up being a tropical depression, so we only missed half-a-days worth of activities. Since we were limited on what we could do that day, we decided to go visit Isaac and Jack's Bay, a secluded series of beaches on the southeast side of the island.



We had visited Isaac's Bay earlier in the week (hiking from Point Udall, the easternmost part of the US). We wanted to see the other side, so we approached Jack's Bay from the other road, and found it to be an easier and better marked hiking trail.

As we approached the bay, we again noticed a lot of trash that had washed up onto the beach. First, we just picked up a few items that were obvious (platic doll leg, lighter, plastic bottle), but the more we picked up, the more we saw.

We decided to go full-board and pick up as much trash as we could from the eastern part of Jack's Bay. It took us about an hour, but it was well worth it.

There were some nearby pelicans towards the edge of the bay. If you've seen the video of the albatross and the plastic found in their stomaches on Midway Island, you'll understand our satisfaction when we were done (watch video link below). Basically, the birds eat the plastic, thinking it's food, and it takes up space in their stomach forever, which prevents them from growing strong enough to fly.

We decided to take a picture of what we collected. It was pretty scary what we found in that short amount of time, including hair curlers, motor oil containers, and toothbrushes.




We don't want to single out St. Croix, as there are many beaches around the world with this same problem. What hope this blog can lead to some change in how the beaches are treated by those who live closest to them. Here are some recommendations we would like to recommend...

1) There needs to be a regular beach cleanup on the island. Encourage the tourists to get involved, along with the school children. As you can see, it doesn't take much time to make a big impact

2) Once the beaches are cleaned, start to track and categorize the trash found on subsequent cleanup efforts, to determine where the trash is coming from, so the problem can be minimized.

Are the skeptics correct that global warming is a hoax?

My education is in statistics and Six Sigma, so when I saw this article, I had to check it out...

Surface Temperature Data Quality Suspect – Casts Doubt on “Global Warming” Hypothesis

Essentially, the article contests that the data being used to justify an increase in temperatures could be lacking. The author, Thomas Pyzdek (a well-respected Six Sigma guru), points to the location of the temperature monitors as a source of error, due to their surrounding conditions.



"The bottom line is that 89% of the sites examined to date are in categories 3, 4, or 5. In other words, they fail to meet established NOAA requirements."

In Six Sigma, it is critical to make sure (with good solid analysis) that the data you are looking at is valid. This is a VERY common error that people make. More often than not, I usually find a problem with the measurements when I'm working on a project. People naturally assume that the data is valid, therefore we should accept it as is. Since this website is very data-focused, any actual or perceived issues related to data collection and reporting of temperature changes needs to be understood and addressed right away.

This leads me to my original reason for the post. Is global warming real?

At first, I thought it was a hands-down decision from the scientific community that it was real, but the more I've opened up my eyes, I can't discredit the nay-sayers (as evidenced by the article above). If I've learned anything over the past few years, it is to never assume or take for granted something, even if it seems right to you, and even if the majority of people think it is right. That alone doesn't make it true. Science and evidence is what will eventually win out, whether we like the results or not.

So let's assume that the jury is still out on global warming. Does my website go away? No! When I look at the reasons for why we need to make these changes and take these actions to be more green, the reduction of CO2 is not the only reason.

Even if we can live with CO2 emissions, we still have the following issues to address:

1) Water quality and scarcity
2) Pesticides in our food
3) Dependence on foreign oil
4) Destruction of our lands (for coal, livestock, urban sprawl, etc)
5) Landfill overflow
6) Animal extinction

Just to name a few...

Bottom line: If carbon emissions actually has no impact on global warming, then all we have lost is just the fear factor of potential natural disasters and harmful living conditions in the future. I would expect that this is not the main reason people are going green, instead it is the impact on their local environment and their pocketbooks that will have the biggest impact, and that is not affected by global warming.

Trouble with reducing your coffee cup waste

Change is difficult. If you've never tried to make change happen, it can be frustrating, annoying, and at times, hopeless. You keep doing it, in hopes that the reward of seeing the change actually happen will make it worthwhile. The times it has worked, it has been very rewarding. So if you're trying to drive change, keep plugging away. It will happen eventually...

Here's an example of how frustrating it can be. I have been working a lot lately, and staying up late. I need a caffeine fix the next morning, so I go to McDonald's for their caramel iced coffee. I brought in my refillable coffee cup and asked that it be used, instead of a plastic cup (and lid and straw). I hate having a stack of plastic cups in my car, to show me how much coffee I've drank, and how much waste I've generated. I take them home to recycle them, but I'd rather not use them in the first place. The problem I ran into is that the way McDonald's coffee system is setup, the cup defines the right amount of coffee, sugar and caramel (or mocha) mixture. If you remove the cup out of the process, you lose the recipe and consistency.



The manager offered to take my cup and pour the coffee into it (after using their cup to mix it), but I suspected that their cup would have been discarded after use, so would I have gained anything? I guess I could have avoided the use of a straw (they needed the lid to shake and mix the coffee). Frustrating!

I guess my point for this blog is that it takes everyone involved in the whole process to think green and environmentally-friendly in order for change to occur. We as consumers can help drive it, but you will really start to see major changes when the people designing the processes are thinking that way from the beginning. It takes the cup suppliers to provide more compostable materials for their cups, and it takes the "coffee process engineer" (someone must have that title, right?) to develop a process that does not require the cups, and can handle any size cup. Dunkin Donuts has a process that is not dependent on cup size, so it definitely is possible.

I'm not trying to pick on McDonald's. They are an easy target, and to their credit, they have been making an attempt to do the right thing. The problem exists in every business we frequent.

Keep pushing. Keep asking for more eco-friendly solutions. You may inspire the coffee process engineer behind you in line without even realizing it!

Why do we need placemats??

My wife and I sat down at IHOP today, to enjoy a delicious breakfast. After a few minutes, the waitress came over and slide a paper placement underneath our menus.



At first, I didn't think much about it, but then I started to wonder why we NEEDED a placemat. What is it's purpose? If there is no real purpose for them anymore, why are they (and all other restaurants) killing trees and wasting money to use them?

1) To keep the table clean? I don't think so. You have to wipe the table off anyways, so what is this thin piece of paper going to improve?

2) To keep hot plates from damaging the table? Well, if it's too hot, the waiter/waitress will probably put a 2nd plate underneath (since they have to carry them). Even if heat was an issue, I don't think the flimsy paper will stop much.

3) To protect the table from scratches? Maybe, but again, it is really thin paper, so I don't think it will do much to prevent damage of any sorts.

4) Sanitary purposes? I guess if some food fell off your plate, and landed on the placemat, you might be more inclined to eat it from there, rather than if it fell on the table. That wouldn't appear to be a very sound reason (from the restaurants perspective) to justify the expense.

5) Children's coloring book? Of course, but I don't think that was the original intent. With that line of thinking, only children should get them, not adults, and that's not what I've observed.

5) Advertising? That is the only logical explanation I can think of. Maybe the sight of a steak and eggs breakfast on their placemat will persuade someone to order it? It didn't for me, by the way.

I think the placemat used to have some more significance, when it was really a mat, and could protect the table, or looked nice in a formal dining setting. However, just setting a piece of paper under my plate seems to be a complete waste of a tree, and I think we should start refusing them, just like the stacks of napkins they give you at the drive-thru, or using paper towels to dry your hands in the restroom (I prefer the pants method!).

Training people on Going Green

I work at a large company that has 20,000 employees worldwide, however, there has not been any environmental training on what they can do to 'go green' while at work. It seems like such an obvious thing to do: train your employees to take simple steps to reduce their impact on the environment. The training is pretty simple, and the potential business impact is enormous.

What we concluded was that there wasn't any off-the-shelf training that could be easily and quickly deployed, so we decided to make one available, for free, on our website.

http://www.helpsaveearth.org/free_going_green_work_training.asp

We feel that if people are trained at work (where they have a captive audience and reporting hierarchy), we can make a bigger impact on communicating these simple steps, rather than trying to communicate to the masses using numerous methods, with varying amounts of detail and explanation. The viral effect within a work environment are much stronger than in real life. For example, it just takes one manager of 100 people to email a green presentation, and require that their direct reports watch it. They are essentially being paid to watch it, and they will because their boss asked them to. In the real world, your friend might email you the same presentation, but what motivation is there to watch it?

We also feel that once people start taking simple steps at work, it will quickly transfer to the home, and they will look for ways to save at home.